Timothy Plancon, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Detroit division, talks with Don Brown, a Macomb County commissioner and official for Republican congressman Paul Mitchell on Wednesday.
DAVE ANGELL -- FOR THE MACOMB DAILY

For the fifth straight year in 2017 Macomb County set the record of the most fatal drug overdoses in its 200-year history.

County Medical Examiner Dr. Daniel Spitz revealed the dubious accomplishment during a town hall meeting Wednesday night, saying the number of drug deaths in 2017 exceeded 400, meaning more than one person per day in Macomb died due to overdosing on drugs. That is an increase of 361 overdoses in 2016 and an increase from 280 in 2015 and from 184 in 2012.

“I’m quite sure when the numbers are in it will be well over 400 overdoses deaths,” Spitz told a crowd in Warren.

His office will finalize the total number in “a couple of months” once all of the investigations are completed.

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The estimated number of 2017 overdoses eclipses a prior estimate by a county official.

The age range of overdose victims was 16 to 92, Spitz said.

Perhaps more startling is that 97 percent of the 2017 overdoses investigated by the medical examiner’s office so far involved an opioid, a more than 400 percent increase from 2014, according to Spitz.

He said that is primarily due to the influx of fentanyl, carfentanyl and other synthetic fentanyls entering the illicit drug market. Fentanyl, which is used to ease extreme pain in people, is much stronger than heroin, and carfentanyl is 5,000 times more potent than heroin and 10,000 times more potent than morphine, Spitz said.

“Fentanyl has infiltrated into the heroin population,” Spitz said. “Fentanyl analogues are now rampant. One tiny amount of carfentanyl can cause death.”

Spitz said there are a half-dozen synthetic, man-made fentanyls such as carfentanyl, carfuranylfentanyl and acetylfentanyl.

Timothy Plancon, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Detroit office, said the equivalent of three grains of salt of fentanyl is fatal. An amount of carfentanyl the size of a piece dust is fatal, he said. Carfentanyl is used to tranquilize large animals, he said.

Spitz spoke before a panel discussion at the Van Dyke Community Auditorium in Warren, an event sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice. The gathering, attended by about 100 people, featured more than a dozen law enforcement officials, a judge and officials involved in treatment and prevention.

Fentanyl was a hot topic.

Daniel Lemisch, deputy U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said fentanyl is being sold on the “dark web” most frequently from China and mailed through the U.S. Postal Service.

“They can fit 20,000 fentanyl doses in a one-ounce letter,” he said. “You can buy fentanyl on the dark web from the comfort of your home, and you can pay for it by Bitcoin.”

Federal agencies have formed the Dark Web Task Force, he said, and the Chinese government has recently agreed to start cracking down on it.

“China has started to realize they’re the source of a lot of pain and suffering in this country and want to police it,” Plancon said.

Randy O’Brien, director of the county Office of Substance Abuse, said due to the rise of fentanyl, his office has doubled the number of doses of Narcan, an opioid antidote, from two to four because two doses sprayed into the nasal passage of an overdosing addict sometimes isn’t enough to reverse the effects. Those typically equipped with narcan are family members of addicts as well as virtually all first-responders.

Lemish said increased heroin use in Michigan corresponds to the partial legalization of marijuana via medical marijuana. He said Mexican cartels previously made most of their money from marijuana sales, which dropped sharply with the onset of legal marijuana following voters’ approval in 2008.

“There used to be more money in marijuana,” Lemisch said. “Now that we have legal marijuana in Michigan -- at least medical marijuana -- it has taken profits from the cartels. They are now growing opium poppies in Mexican, and they process it into heroin in Mexico -- cheap, high-potency heroin.”

Lemish, Plancon and Matt Krupa of the FBI’s Macomb County office said their operations are divided between trying to stop the sources of illicit heroin and fentanyls and cracking down on doctors and pharmaceutical companies pushing for improper use of prescription opioids painkillers.

A concluding theme among the participants was the need to increase awareness and foster discussion of the use of opioids whether in the form of heroin or prescription painkillers.

Sam Paris of Ferndale, a supervisory of recovery coaches for Care of Southeastern Michigan, attended to support a panel member, recovery coach Andrew Brown, but said more town halls are needed to get the word out.

County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham at the end told the crowd: “Take what you heard today and talk about it and educate anybody who will listen. ... This is an epidemic.”

Wickersham’s earlier comment, “We can’t arrest our way out of this,” was agreed upon by the panelists, who said programs such as treatment courts and Hope Not Handcuffs can provide a better solution to helping addicts overcome their addiction.

Wickersham said 72 percent of the 1,238 inmates at the county jail are there due to a drug issue. He said more inmates are overdosing in jail because they ingest drugs before they arrive.

Brown, the recovery coach, and David Clayton of Families Against Narcotics, both former addicts, said they could not provide a percentage of addicts who recover but estimated it may be about 50 percent. But it typically requires multiple attempts.

“People do recover, do get better,” Brown said. “Sometimes it’s not the first time, sometimes it’s not the 10th time.”